has anyone thought about this yet? I did a search but there was nothing relevant.

the standard ttd building system is what we're used to, but it has its limits. (every special bit of rail/road will need its own button)

the simutrans building system has less buttons but slows down complex track building (first you build track by selecting start and end points, then depots and stations etc are built on top of track, so you don't need to select a heading)

Personally I'm charmed by the rct building style(You build one starting piece of track, and from that you have options based on what track is available and what the landscape allows). The pro is that it allows for easy selection of large amounts of different special track parts and thus easy building of complex singlerail tracks. the con is that it makes complex multirail track building more complicated (there are more ends to fit together)

perhaps a hybrid system? where the basis is like the ttd system (which everyone knows) and optional rct style building is also possible?

it looks good; but i would say that we need a seperate build and design mode; first you design the track, and land is bought to prevent others from terraforming it, and once your finished designing, building begins.

One thing that is not shown on my scetch, but is planed for my UI is this:

1. You press att (2,2) in terain
2. You select the straight road group.
3. You select a straight road module.
4. You can now move your mouse in terain and click on the end point of your road. Say (2,1).
5. The Toolbox class build a strightroad from (2,2) to (2,1).

When you are in step 4, you will see a half transparent road, so you know what will be build before you click.

The same can be done also with non-straight road modules, but it will be more tricky to implement.

Personally I like the RCT-style system, but if we modify it so we can build, say, pieces of straight track 2 and 5 tiles long so it doesn't take ages to build long bits of straight track. Of course, you can alse have buttons for S-bends and stuff (those are incredibly useful for getting round small obstructions), and small, medium and large-radius corners. I've even drawn a simple schematic.

2 You might left click on the square that you want to create the junction on.
Click on the directon arrow(see attachment) that matches the direction of the new road. Select straight road, and press build.

In Loco you have to build a turn on the # marked road element. And when you left click you need to left click on a = marked square next to the # marked square. When leftclicking you also need to leftclick at right place so that it will build in right direction. This I think is a bit confusing.

It(RCT buld system) did work in RCT where tarcks had a direction, but in Loco tracks/roads don't have a direction. I gues that at least roads will not have directions in TEmpire.

What I would also like would be a "build as long as there is money" option, that means, you lay your complete tracks, even if you don't have enough money, and when enough money comes in, a piece big enough to be able to afford is built. So, every purchase is put into a queue which is executed as there is enough money.

The sections of track used for a locomotion-style system can be defined by their start and finish points, usually on the edge of a tile.

When you're creating track why not have, in addition to the traditional interface, a handle that you can drag to where you want the track section to go? If you wanted to be even more advanced you could have it lay multiple sections in one sweep.